Ken briefly alluded to effects of medications for his upper body injury. Maybe he had the poops. I sure would leave a game and not come back, miss a flight, and take time off if that was my problem. I also wouldn't want to talk about it to the media.

Lots of players get the stomach flu, food poisoning or what not. Fans get the gist of what that entails. It's usually not cloaked in secrecy. Medications to stop it usually make you feel better, not worse. The anxiety thing just seems to make much more sense. Anxiety medications do make you sluggish and tired, it just seems like the most likely explanation, since one isn't really being given. If Franzen wants to keep his condition secret, that's understandable, as he doesn't like attention, but the team should at least be on top of the situation and give a plausible explanation and not leave the everyone looking dumbfounded when they ask about what is wrong with Franzen.

Ken briefly alluded to effects of medications for his upper body injury. Maybe he had the poops. I sure would leave a game and not come back, miss a flight, and take time off if that was my problem. I also wouldn't want to talk about it to the media.

This is, I think, the first time I've seen the poops referred to as well, "the poops." I laughed, and now I feel like a seven-year-old. Thank you for bringing out my inner child.

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" - Kierkegaard

Lots of players get the stomach flu, food poisoning or what not. Fans get the gist of what that entails. It's usually not cloaked in secrecy. Medications to stop it usually make you feel better, not worse. The anxiety thing just seems to make much more sense. Anxiety medications do make you sluggish and tired, it just seems like the most likely explanation, since one isn't really being given. If Franzen wants to keep his condition secret, that's understandable, as he doesn't like attention, but the team should at least be on top of the situation and give a plausible explanation and not leave the everyone looking dumbfounded when they ask about what is wrong with Franzen.

So even though both Franzen and the team have come out and literally laughed off the suggestion that it was anxiety issues... we're STILL going to beat a dead horse here and claim this guy has a debilitating mental illness because it more conveniently fits into the "Franzen is lazy and he sucks," mode of thought around here.... OK, that's fair.

I guess everyone else on the team not named Datsyuk and Zetterberg is suffering from some kind of mental illness too, because they aren't scoring either...

So even though both Franzen and the team have come out and literally laughed off the suggestion that it was anxiety issues... we're STILL going to beat a dead horse here and claim this guy has a debilitating mental illness because it more conveniently fits into the "Franzen is lazy and he sucks," mode of thought around here.... OK, that's fair.

I guess everyone else on the team not named Datsyuk and Zetterberg is suffering from some kind of mental illness too, because they aren't scoring either...

Who said he had a debilitating mental illness? I don't see anxiety as that. Franzen discussed his severe anxiety issues in an interview with a Swedish newspaper a few years ago. So it isn't like some wild speculation. Franzen was also asked if he was sick or hurt, and he said "I don't know" That doesn't sound like "laughing it off" to me. So if he had the flu, why is that a secret? If he has an injury, again, why the secrecy? Weiss has a groin injury, Helm had a back injury, Ericsson has a shoulder injury. But Franzen? Oh, he doesn't know if he's sick or injured, it's medication side effects, its an upper body injury, its the flu. I can understand if Franzen doesn't want the attention, but if that was the case the Wings really dropped the ball on this one.

Anxiety issues can be debilitating. I don't want to "take the ball and run with it," but a flare-up or (re)lapse of some kind, maybe compounded by the flu or an upper-body injury, seems plausible to me. Because we know for a fact that he has struggled with anxiety in the past.

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" - Kierkegaard

What upsets me is some of the posts on here that basically criticize Franzen's inability to deal with anxiety.
Whatever is wrong with him I hope he's better soon and as far as mental health issues with athletes, I hope some people grow up and respect that a mental health problem isn't something to mock.

What upsets me is some of the posts on here that basically criticize Franzen's inability to deal with anxiety.
Whatever is wrong with him I hope he's better soon and as far as mental health issues with athletes, I hope some people grow up and respect that a mental health problem isn't something to mock.

When it was "the speculation", that worried me too. People don't realize how bad those sort of problems can be. It's not like you want it to happen, or like you can stop it from happening. Coping mechanisms can help, but they're not a cure-all, nor do they help all the time.

Fortunately, the last word from Franzen (in one of the links above) was that it was not a mental issue and is not anxiety-related. I'm very glad for him that it's not. Sometimes the "invisible" problems are harder to treat than the ones that show up on an MRI.

In the mean time, it is a weird thing that he is saying he'll tell people later, but then doesn't. It does make me wonder, especially when no one seems to know that it is that is his problem. When Lidstrom got speared in the huevos, they did try to make the explanation subtle, but word got out really quickly.